1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the business using electronic mail, it is important to manage electronic mail and a file related to electronic mail. For example, there may be a facsimile file about a received request placing an order, electronic mail transmitted to confirm stock status, and spreadsheet file for reporting the stock status, when doing business with respect to an order from a customer for a commercial product.
An attached file transmitted and received along with electronic mail is associated with the electronic mail to manage the electronic mail and other files. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-244033 discusses a technique for displaying the associated electronic mail by the application executing the attached file.
In the technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-244033, the application executing the attached file needs a function to start a mail application. For this reason, in the electronic mail which receives unspecified files, usage is limited. Further, the function is ineffective for the electronic mail without the attached file.
Then, there is a method for managing the electronic mail and a file related to the electronic mail in one folder. An application for transmitting and receiving electronic mail (hereinafter referred to as mail application) also has a function to manage the electronic mail by sorting the electronic mails by folders but has a problem that it cannot manage a file different in a transmission and reception path from the electronic mail. The mail application has a problem in that the number of mails transmitted and received is increased day by day, so that a large number of folders is created, mails are dispersed.
A file management system is used to avoid such dispersion. The mail application has a function to export transmitted and received electronic mails. The file management system manages the exported electronic mails. The mail application stores electronic mail data as a file according to storage file format. The storage file format is an eml format, for example. Hereinafter, electronic mail stored according to the storage file format is referred to as storage mail.
If a plurality of storage mails exists in a folder, all storage mails within the folder sometimes need to be read because it may not be enough to read just one mail to acquire a sufficient amount of information. In addition, the transmission and reception record of storage mails sometimes needs to be searched to confirm if other relevant storage mails exist.